


Matters of the Heart

by captainamergirl



Category: General Hospital
Genre: F/M, Two Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 22:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Maxie's been distant lately...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in early 2011, right after Jake Spencer "died"!

**Part 1**  
  
Matt walked into the hospital cafeteria and immediately zeroed in on his girlfriend sitting across the room, huddled in a corner and staring out the window with an expression etched all over her pretty face that clearly said _"I'm miserable"._ He thought he knew her well enough by now that he could tell when something was bugging her. She had been oddly distant the past few days and he wondered if she was cooling off romantically towards him but something told him it was more than that. He just felt it was something she wasn't going to easily open up to him about but damned if he wouldn't try to make her spill her pretty guts about whatever was eating her up inside.  
  
He picked up a tray and skirted to the front of the lunch line, flashing the crotchety old cafeteria cook Vonda a smooth smile. She never could resist that smile although she hated everyone else who came up to her counter.  
  
"What will it be, Romeo?" Vonda asked.  
  
"Something my girl will love," Matt said with a smile.  
  
"Every girl loves chocolate," Vonda mused. "Chocolate pudding to be specific." She promptly set two cups of chunky looking pudding on his tray along with two plastic spoons. "Enjoy, Dr. Hunter."  
  
"Hopefully, we will," Matt said and dropped the money on the counter plus extra for a tip to thank Vonda for not yelling at him for cutting in line.  
  
He picked up the tray and moved slowly over to Maxie, watching her watching ... nothing ... out the window. She looked so sad and something inside of him reacted to that. They had their bi-monthly lunch date at the cafeteria between his shifts and though she always complained about the "shitty food and poor service", she had seemed to enjoy his company enough to keep coming every first and third Thursday of the month. He hoped that today though, she would open up to him. He had never been good at the emotional minutiae of life but he would try for her.  
  
"Maxie," Matt said, dropping into the chair across from her. "I come bearing gifts." He set both pudding cups in front of her. He would make the sacrifice and let her have two even if he was starving after having been in surgery all morning.  
  
Maxie barely seemed to notice him. Just shrugged and kept looking out the window. Finally Matt reached out and squeezed her hand gently. "Hey, Maxie, talk to me."  
  
Maxie finally seemed to notice him and she turned away from the window to face him. "Hey..." she murmured and looked down at the pudding cups."Are you trying to get me fat?"  
  
Matt sighed. "Normally you would say that with a lot more anger and disgust in your face. What gives?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You haven't been yourself lately, Maxie. You toss and turn all night and then are gone in the mornings before I even wake up which never happens. You clam up when I try to ask you anything and you barely have two words to say to me. That's definitely not like you."  
  
Maxie practically growled out, "I don't want to talk about it."  
  
"Come on, Maxie," Matt said. "You can tell me anything. Yell at me if you want to."  
  
"I don't want to yell at you, Matt!" Maxie snapped, contradicting herself by raising her voice. "I don't want to talk to anyone!"  
  
Matt nodded. "Okay... You're getting testy. Which is fine but ... Ohmigod, are you pregnant?"  
  
Maxie blanched and her face filled with hot, crimson-red fire. "Are you serious?! I am NOT pregnant," Maxie snapped. "Not everything is about having babies, you know. Because babies ... They die... Not everything is about your virility!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You wouldn't understand," Maxie fumed.  
  
"Then try to explain it to me," Matt said and reached for her other hand but she pulled away like he had burnt her.  
  
"I don't have enough time to do that, Matt," she huffed. "Take your chocolate pudding cup 'offering' and just shove it."  
  
Matt sighed as she jumped to her feet, grabbed her purse and stomped off. He wanted to follow her but something told him he needed to give her space. Maybe while he was doing that, he could find out what was bothering her so much.  
  
He sighed as he stood and picked up the pudding cups, tossing them in the trash can before walking out of the cafeteria.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
He found his sister-in-law at the nurse's station filling out charts and approached her. "Hey, Robin, got a minute?"  
  
Robin looked up and nodded. "Yeah, a whole two minutes actually. I am expected in surgery soon."  
  
"Okay I'll keep it short then ... Why is Maxie acting so damned crazy?"  
  
Robin smiled. "This is my cousin we're talking about. Much as I love her ... Well, can you be more specific?"  
  
"Yeah. She has been really distant for the past few days. Stand-offish. Barely says a word to me or seemingly anyone. I think it could mean her feelings are changing for me but -"  
  
"You're a Drake by birth. You can't believe that," Robin smirked. "You are charmers. Maxie would not lose interest in you."  
  
Matt smiled thinly. "Okay then what could it be?"  
  
"Well I noticed too that she's been kind of aloof lately. With the whole Jake Spencer and Josslyn Jacks situation ... She could be thinking about BJ. She never really got over BJ dying the way she did and giving Maxie her heart. So it's quite possible that -"  
  
"Wait. Hold up. Who's BJ? What does her heart have to do with Maxie's? I'm lost to be honest ..."  
  
Robin looked at her watch. "Oh it's a long story and I am going to be late to prep for surgery. I have to give you the edited version, okay?"  
  
"Okay..."  
  
And Robin told him the Cliff's Note version in just enough detail that a picture formed in his mind.  
  
Maxie, when she was just a little girl, had been dying of Kawasaki disease and required a heart transplant. In short, her cousin BJ was left brain dead after a drunk driver hit her school bus and they discovered BJ was a match for Maxie and BJ's parents made the decision to give Maxie BJ's heart.  
  
Matt felt genuinely sick after hearing all that. "How did I not know all of this, Robin? Why didn't I ever try to find out what really made Maxie tick? Why she never felt good enough for me or anyone else? Why she told me she didn't feel like a whole person ..."  
  
Robin reached out and squeezed Matt's shoulder reassuringly. "Matt, that's the beauty of this whole ugly mess. There's still time to figure out everything about Maxie and what makes her the girl you like so much."  
  
Matt nodded and watched as Robin turned and walked off. He didn't know what he would do just yet but he would make sure that Maxie knew how much she meant to him and that he wanted to know every part of her - the good, the bad, the ugly ... everything that made her His Maxie...


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**  
  
Maxie was lying on her bed, having just gorged herself on a pint of Cherry Garcia, feeling not just full of ice cream but a sweeping, pervading depression that a thousand, indulgent calories could not dissipate. A single piteous tear ran down her cheek but she made no effort to wipe it away. Why she was even crying though… well, that made no sense to her.  
  
Just then the door to her bedroom opened and Matt poked his head in. “Hey,” he greeted her with a smile. “How are you?”  
  
“I already said I’m fine!” she snapped.  
  
“Okay …” His eyes fell on the empty ice cream container. “You turned down my cup of chocolate pudding for the hard stuff huh?”  
  
“Don’t judge me!” Maxie snapped. “Anyway what the hell do you want?”  
  
“To see you smile again,” Matt said earnestly and in spite of herself, she felt a little flutter of emotion in her stomach. His smile was hard to resist and always made her feel weak in the knees, even if she was hard-pressed to admit it.  
  
Maxie said nothing though as he pushed the door back on its hinges. “I have a surprise for you,” he said and then proceeded to drag a huge, fluffy, flocked Christmas tree into her room.  
  
She jumped off the bed. “Matt, what the hell is that?”  
  
“It’s a Christmas tree,” Matt said as if it should be obvious.  
  
“It’s not even Christmastime!”  
  
“I know. You won’t believe how hard it was to find a tree like this in April!” Matt said and dragged the tree to a standing position on its wooden axis in the corner of the room.  
  
“You’re insane! You’re freaking crazy!” Maxie shouted at him. His behavior was truly bizarre, to say the least.  
  
“Crazy about you,” Matt said and turned his gorgeous eyes on her. “Really crazy about you.”  
  
Maxie felt the flutters in her belly pick up but was determined to ignore them. “Why a Christmas tree?”  
  
“Because I have yet to find one person who doesn’t feel happy when they see a Christmas tree and smell its fresh pine needles. I thought we could even decorate it together. I brought some of my mom’s old ornaments and a few CDs. There’s nothing quite like Bing Crosby crooning ‘White Christmas’ to ring in the holiday.”  
  
“Why are you doing this?” Maxie demanded. “This is not a freaking happy occasion!”  
  
“I just want to see –“  
  
“Me smile again. Yeah I get it. But right now, it’s just not happening. How can I be happy when people – when kids more specifically – are dying? I shouldn’t be –“  
  
“What – allowed to keep living yourself? To be happy? Maxie, that’s insane! You can’t control the universe. If I know anything as a doctor, it’s that nature –“  
  
“It’s not nature or natural for little kids to die,” Maxie cried and to her horror, another tear rolled down her cheek.  
  
Matt looked at her with sympathy in his fantastic eyes. “Robin told me about your cousin BJ.”  
  
“You mean you drilled her for information!” Maxie accused as she slumped back on the bed and Matt joined her, reaching for her hand. She thought about shaking free of his grasp but she simply didn’t have the energy to keep fighting anymore.  
  
“I had to,” Matt said. “I knew you were feeling down and I just so … I really want you to be okay.”  
  
“I am okay. Its Jake and BJ that aren’t okay. Poor Jake. I made his mom’s life such a living hell…”  
  
“That was the past, Maxie. You’ve changed and I happen to think you’re amazing.”  
  
“Then you’re blind because I’m not amazing. I’m selfish and I’m needy and I’m whiny and egotistical and –“  
  
Matt placed a finger over her lips. “I am not going to sit here and listen to you beat yourself down. You’re human, Maxie, everyone’s got their issues but I love you because you’re so …. Well, you.”  
  
“Did you just say you love me?” Maxie asked, turning to face him.  
  
“Yes. I wouldn’t buy a Christmas tree for just anyone, would I?” He quipped. “I love you. And your good heart and it’s not just BJ’s heart. It’s yours too. The way you feel so deeply … it’s amazing. You are amazing. I am so glad you’re in my life.”  
  
Maxie sighed and brushed a finger across her moist eyelids. “I love you too, Matt. So much but I am so … I feel so guilty for even being alive right now. BJ is gone, so is Jake and Georgie and so many other people. I hate that people die. Or leave and I know one day, you’re going to leave me too.”  
  
“You’re wrong about that. I have every intention of hanging around, making you crazy for the next sixty years at least.”  
  
“Intentions are not a promise.”  
  
“Okay then I promise you if you want me to be, I am going to make you so crazy for the longest time. Because I love you and I’m not walking away from the best thing that ever happened to me.”  
  
“Matt, I can’t be the best thing. I’m flighty, I’m –“  
  
“Yeah, yeah. But you’re also amazing with a great empathy for others even though people might not guess that right off. But you showed me your heart tonight – and it is your heart too – and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”  
  
“Matt,” she whispered. “Why are you being so good to me? I don’t deserve it.”  
  
“You do. You deserve for someone to stand by you through thick and thin and everything in between.”  
  
“Probably thickness soon. I gorged on ice cream, after all,” she said with a little smile.  
  
“I’ll love you even if you blow up like the good year blimp.”  
  
“You jerk!” Maxie gasped but she was laughing now.  
  
He leaned over and kissed her gently. He then pressed his forehead to hers. “I love you, Maxie.”  
  
“I love you too.” She looked at the tree then. “Merry Christmas, Matt Hunter," she said as she slid into his arms.  
  
“Merry Christmas, Maxie Jones.”  
  
THE END


End file.
